“We don’t thank the French on the Fourth of July”

History is a funny thing. We accept our interpretations of it to be tantamount to fact yet, the reality is that the context in which we view history is always incredibly distorted by our collective biases. So how then will history view America’s involvement in the Middle East? More importantly, how will the people of the Middle East view our involvement 50 years from now as they reflect back upon the beginning of their own internal revolution and adoption of democratic principles?

Throughout this entire freedom movement in the Middle East in Tunisia now Egypt I can’t help but see a connection to Iraq…and more importantly…the direct and indirect effects of U.S. policy in Iraq. Is it fair to ascribe even some positive relationship between the U.S. ousting of Saddam Hussein, the subsequent implementation of democracy in Iraq and the recent wave of pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the region? In my mind it is and I believe historians decades from now within the region and outside it will, if not grudgingly, acknowledge that a catalyst for change in the region was the U.S. Invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein thereby allowing Iraq to become the region’s first truly democratic country.

While the resulting violence in Iraq has led to hundreds of thousands of casualties and civil war the end-product for Iraq is democracy and a growing civil society that even prior to Tunisia and Egypt were clamoring for more rights, accountable government and secular institutions that honor the values of Iraqis while respecting their diversity. This is apparent if you are an observer of Iraqi affairs. I have spent the better part of the last decade living in Iraq, studying its development and working to help develop its civil institutions. However, I first began that journey as a young Marine Lance Corporal wielding an automatic weapon against Saddam’s Fedayeen during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Today, I continue the mission as a civilian working in a multitude of public advocacy programs designed at bolstering Iraq civil society and increasing and enhancing dialogue within Iraq and between Iraqis and the United States. In all this time I have seen a change as Iraqis have slowly begun to climb out of the rubble of their war ravaged country and acknowledge the potential and power of the nascent democracy they have been building.

The most free and fair elections to ever occur in any Arab country occurred in Iraq in 2010. This is an immovable fact. Despite their celebrations and jubilatation the Egyptian people cannot claim that victory. Today they remain under martial law and lack the democratic rights Iraqis have today and while the peaceful nature of the Egyptian revolution is something truly historic, it does not change the fact that the beginning of true democracy in the Arab world has begun already in Iraq with the assistance of U.S. Forces working alongside the Iraqi security forces to provide the necessary security to allow for the people of Iraq to exercise these rights. Yet, you will not hear that analysis in the media. You will not readily hear the Iraqi or Egyptian people acknowledge this truth—and perhaps this is how it must be. Revolutions are meant to be are about the people even though they never occur in a vacuum. In America we know this truth all too well because our story is much the same.

The American colonists who built the world’s first successful (so-far) Constitutional Democratic Republic would likely have lost their fight against the British Imperial Army were it not for the critical support of the French Navy and Army. Were it not for France’s support of America’s revolution the spark of revolution and freedom could have easily been snuffed out under the superior might of the British Army occupying the colonies and the British Navy blockading their ports. Yet, we Americans rarely praise the French for their role. Our history books make only a passing reference to it because we want to focus on what we did, our heroes, and our revolution. Deep down we all know we owe our success in our war of independence to the assistance of the French. So too will the historians of a modern Middle East recognize that the liberation of their own societies was due, in part, to the sacrifices of thousands of American service-members who gave their lives to breathe life into a free Iraq.